Rent at Hogwarts
by KatMellark21
Summary: The group from Rent as they would have lived if they'd been in Howarts houses.
1. Chapter 1

Sitting on the train is nerve wracking. There are two benches across from each other that right now, I have all to myself while more of the students start to pile into the train cars. Of course, I've been there at the station since early this morning, punctual as always. I like being early. If you arrive early, you're on time. But if you are on time, you're basically almost late.

Many students just walk right by when they see I'm already sitting here, but when it's almost time to go, one boy passes by my seat again, and then again a minute or so later. I roll my eyes and stand up to tap him on the shoulder the next time his ginger head passes by the door. He turns around, startled, and he pushes his glasses up into place on his nose.

"You can sit here with me if you want," I tell him. Though really, I don't particularly want him to. Having the benches to myself would have been nice. I liked it that way. The quiet and the privacy… I wouldn't be having either of those anymore at this magic boarding school I'm going to.

He looks at me a little hesitantly, but smiles some, "Thanks." We both moved into the car and took seats on the opposite benches. I don't need any of his boy-cooties touching me…

I watch him, out of the corner of my eye. He's kind of weird. I don't like him.

He takes out a disposable camera from his pocket and takes a picture out the window. But he lowers it a second later and squints out the window. "She better hurry….I think the train's already getting ready to go," he says, pointing outside.

I bend over to look too, and see another girl running toward the door and hopping onto the train. Not a minute later, the train jostles as it starts to move forward and my stomach drops into my gut. She is actually happening. I'm leaving home and going to this magic school, and I'm stuck in this little cabin with this weird—but the door opens and the same girl from outside closes it behind her as she turns around and gives us both a wide grin. Her dark hair is a little messy and she's breathing hard from the sprint to get on the train. "Hey guys. Looks like you get to sit with me. I'm Maureen. And you are?"

"Mark," he mumbled at first before repeating himself a little clearer, and with a doof of a smile. "I'm Mark."

She grinned at him, eyes squinching up a little with the motion until she turned and nodded at me, "And you?"

"Joanne."


	2. Chapter 2

She's completely the opposite of me. She has fair skin, dark, long hair that goes past her shoulders in messy waves, and her voice is the most egotistical thing I've ever heard. And I am completely overwhelmed by just how talkative she is.

That Mark-kid is really hitting it off with her though. He asks to take her picture and she starts making faces and poses for him like if she was on a magazine cover or something. Before I know it, she's sat down on the bench next to him and they're talking and laughing like they're best buds.

I make myself comfortable by looking out the window in silence, watching the city turn into an endless expanse of country side. I almost wonder what it would be like to live in such a simple, serene place…but I imagine it would get boring after a while, even if you did enjoy having quiet, you have to have _something _to do in your life. Repetition can only go so far, and never-ending days of rolling hay or farming crops was definitely not the life she could envision herself enjoying.

My thoughts are disturbed when I hear one of them say my name, "Joanne." It took a second to figure out that Mark was the one that said it, "What about you?"

I look at him with confusion. I wasn't part of their conversation, I didn't know what they were talking about.

Maureen grins and tucks her feet up indian-style under her. She's not wearing the robe we're supposed to be wearing, just her pants and shirt, robe having been discarded in a heap on the corner of her bench. "We were talking about the Houses. Which one do you think you'll be in?"

I shrug, "I'll be wherever I'm assigned to." I didn't think there was much use in trying to predict it. There was already going to be a house assigned to me. So, if I worked myself up for getting into one, and ended up not getting it, I'd just be miserable for the rest of my time at Hogwarts. Better not to get attached.

There are many, many names called out at the sorting ceremony, but I only can catch a few of them as student after student goes up to the sorting hat.

Benjamin Coffin III – Slytherin

Tom Collins – Ravenclaw

I'm a little nervous as I watch all the other first years that go up ahead of me. It's intimidating to know I'll be sorted into one of these groups for the next seven years.

Then I recognize a name that's called, "Mark Cohen." I scoot out of the way and watch as his nervous, ginger head parts through the crowd. He's quiet as he barely mutters "excuse me's" all the way up to the front, and I can't help but feel a little sorry for him as he slowly sits on the stool, even paler than before when the living hat is placed on his head. His hands clench the stool and he shuts his eyes, and I almost wonder if the hat is biting his brain or something.

"Hufflepuff!" the hat calls out, and the table off farthest to the left of the hall cheers and claps. Mark finally breathes a sigh of relief as the hat is lifted off his head and he bounds over to his new house.

Roger Davis – Gryffindor

"Joanne Jefferson," I feel my heart stop for a brief second as I realize it's _my _name that was just called. I go up to the front, and look hesitantly at the strange, living hat as I take a seat. It feels strange as it's leathery brim is put on my head. It twitches and moves against my hair and I swear, I can feel it vibrating as it hums thoughtfully. Hats don't' have vocal chords…how is it humming—"Ravenclaw!" I blink a moment before standing up, the weight of the hat lifted from my head. I look to the table that is now cheering for me. They're excited to have me as an added member of their house, and I can't help but smile proudly at that fact as I walk over to the long table to take a seat with my new house.

It's not many more people before "Maureen Johnson," is called up, and I really hope she actually ends up in my house. We had finally gotten to talking a fair bit more on the train ride over, and I was really beginning to feel like I had at least one friend here. But she was assigned to Slytherin instead. I was a little disappointed, but it wasn't that bad. She was still at the same school as me anyway, and surely we could hang out after classes and such.

Mimi Marquez – Gryffindor

Angel Dumott Schunard – Hufflepuff

I'm only paying half attention anymore to the rest of the names, as I'm far more interested in getting acquainted with the other Ravenclaws around me.

I'm finally looking forward to this school year.


	3. Chapter 3

Tom was fun. He was easily one of my new favorite people in my house, for sure. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that we were both new, so we could easily enough get lost or find our way around on equal levels instead of having to trail along beside older students. After dinner, we were led up to our dormitory, and we walked and made mental notes of which direction we had to take the moving staircases so that we wouldn't get too lost the next time we were going through there.

The first night was kind of lonely. Actually, for the first couple of weeks, it was lonely. Even sharing a room with multiple girls from my house, I just didn't really click with any of them. They all wanted to talk about boys and the ball. I was more interested in reading or just being on top of my studies. Magic school or not, you can still flunk out of Hogwarts.

Every day, it was the same routine. I'd get up, make my bed with perfect tucked corners, dress in my school robes, go to classes, come back and answer the riddle to get back in my dorm, and do my homework. Tom and I would sometimes do homework together, but he spent a lot of time on his own, out causing trouble.

And I know he wasn't the only one. There were new students in every house that kept having house points taken away. That Mimi girl from Gryffindor apparently was trying to howl and make people think there was a werewolf on the school grounds. That was ten points. Another kid from Gryffindor was Roger. He kept skipping classes. That was 5 points. Angel kept breaking dress code policy. Even that Mark kid she'd met on the bus kept getting his nose into trouble. Apparently he still carried that muggle camera everywhere around school and he kept taking pictures of everything, even during class.

Things continued like that for the rest of the year, always one person somewhere getting their house into trouble.

Even in second year, things kept on. It always seemed to be the same students from their houses too that kept getting called out.

But then the day came when I was an accomplice to such acts of defiance. I had just answered the door's riddle and was stepping through the door when a brush of black robes with green trim shoved past me and knocked me onto the floor. "Ow! What the heck is wrong with you!?"

"Sorry, sorry—" she muttered, pulling me up to my feet and helping to brush me off. It was then I realized that I recognized her. She was the girl from the train, Maureen. She smiled like she had a secret and the next thing I knew, she'd grabbed me by my wrist and pulled me through the lounge, looking around for anyone else.

"What are you even doing here—" I started to ask.

But she put her palm over my mouth and whispered, "Shhh, Filch is right on my tail. I'm looking for a place to hide."

My eyebrows shot up. She'd managed to make Filch angry? And he hadn't caught her? "What did you do?"

"I might have given his cat a haircut," she grinned, "And possibly set the end of its tail on fire and nearly given it a heart attack."

Speaking honestly, I rather hated Filch's cat. It hissed and growled at me anytime I had to cross its path, so to hear that justice had been served to it, I couldn't help but laugh.

I brought her along over to my bed, the same one I'd had last year, corners and blankets all tucked neatly up—the best made bed in the Ravenclaw dormitory. And we both plopped right down on top of it, sitting cross-legged atop the covers. She started listing off all the other rule-breaking things she'd done since they'd first arrived last year and I simply couldn't believe my ears for some of it. How Dumbledore of McGonagall hadn't caught on, I would never know.

But that was the year that Maureen and I finally got to actually hang out together. She dragged me along into her wild antics, and after, we'd hide in my dorm until the coast was clear.


End file.
